Egyptian socialists on the state attacks on protesters in Tahrir Square

A statement from the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt on the state attacks on protesters in Tahrir Square issued on 9 April 2011.

Published Sun 10 Apr 2011

Issue No. 2246

The Military Council is the guardian of dictatorship and corruption

The attacks by the armed forces on unarmed demonstrators at dawn Saturday using live bullets and tear gas, and their attempt to terrify protestors with armoured cars, puts the Military Council clearly in the camp of counter-revolution.

The attempts to break up the protest camp can have no other meaning except that the Military Council is defending the interests of the corrupt thieves who stole from the Egyptian people for the past thirty years. The generals who sit at the top of the pyramid in the Army are part of Mubarak's corrupt gang, and it is they who have the task of protecting the system of thieving and corruption after his fall. Now is the time to get rid of them, just as the revolutionaries finished off Mubarak.

After today nobody will be fooled by the slogan “the army and the people are one hand”.

For the past two months that the Military Council has held power, it has crushed protests and tortured demonstrators and dragged them before the military courts.

This time however, the Army did not act alone in its attempts to break up the sit-in, but worked hand-in-glove with the police.

This means that the army and the police are 'one hand' against the people, and that their hands are stained with the blood of the revolutionaries.

It therefore falls to the people to get rid of them both, and to create a popular civilian authority which reflects the demands of the revolutionaries and realises the aspirations of the Egyptian people to live in freedom and dignity.

This will mean bringing Mubarak and his henchmen to trial for the crimes they committed against the people, and the confiscation of all their assets.

Mubarak and his cronies will never be brought to trial while Tantawi and 'Annan and the other generals on the Military Council remain in power in Egypt, as they are part of his regime, and embroiled in the corruption which swamped the country during his dictatorship.

We must continue our revolution until the country has been cleansed and Mubarak's Military Council has been removed from power.